Song One Is a Lie

Influences

They Might Be Giants, “Number Three” (as a song whose concept is based on its album placement)

Biosphere, “Phantasm”

Jaga Jazzist, “Music! Dance! Drama!”

Kraftwerk, “Uranium” (for the specific style of my whispering)

Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, “Song Eleven Could Take Forever” (in terms of the title)

Story

I’d had this idea kicking around while making Made by Thawing Ice about a song discussing album construction theory and how to effectively preview albums quickly – where are you most likely to find their center? In my years of sifting through loads of music, I’ve found the second song to be the best place to start, because it’s still up at the top of the album (where the impressive stuff goes) while having fewer possible functions than the first song. This doesn’t hold as well for ambient music, where the first track might be half the album to begin with, and it doesn’t hold for EPs. But for LPs, it works more often than it doesn’t – you’ll get something about the album as a whole from listening to the second song.

So it amused me to write an opening track that tells you it’s not where you should start listening to the album – that it’s not an effective guide – while also being the type of track I’m talking about. To that end, it’s in 13/16 time (okay, maybe that is a guide to the album), it’s a duet, and it ends abruptly.

I thought it would be interesting for me to lay out the structural argument for my position about album theory – and not accepting this song as typical – while having Nick Merchant lay out the emotional argument for the same idea. It’s like we’re speaking to different audiences but in agreement about one important thing: this song isn’t representative of anything.

The song starts off with a filtered Mellotron because it was the most Nick version of myself, based on his own music (he’s one of the world’s biggest Optigan fans). The electric guitar sound toward the end is a bass pedal filtered through an Orange amp for distortion.

The rhythm of this song is so tricksy that I had a hard time giving Nick the guide vocal for it. So props to him for being a trooper on a song even the writer struggled with (and also for the difficult enunciation when “aural” versus “oral” is important to distinguish). I think he sounds like Elvis Costello on here.

And if you think it’s weird to pair They Might Be Giants concepts with Biosphere/Kraftwerk musical darkness…welcome to my aesthetic.

Lyrics

(My whispered verse)

When you preview an album this long,
Here’s what I think you should do
Skip past the first song
And try out song two

Song one might be a false start
Or have waaaaay more energy
Than the rest of the art
Would even dare to be

Song two will give truer bearings
Of what the album’s all about
With none of the red herrings
Song one might give out

The concept applies
To this album I have done
Song two’s the truth; song one’s a lie
This is song one

(Nick’s sung chorus)

It’s inauthentic
Don’t accept it
This album’s tenets
Aren’t represented

It’s ineffective
Aural digestive
This song’s infectious
In two+ senses

What you’re hearing
Is so misleading
You’ll regret this
New low in ethics

These metasonics
Dictate upon us
It’s a life hack
To skip this first track

Some press about it

“The album begins with “Song One Is a Lie,” creating an ethereal and attractive tone with whisper-like vocals and ambient sounds. Around the midpoint, a distant beat appears, enhancing the track’s dreamlike and deep character.” – Skylight.gr

“The album fades in on an ambient droning wave Song One Is A Lie that has whispered vocals telling you why you should skip Song One it’s the tune to [l]ull you into buying this record, but it might be a false chimera, so take song 2 as being the truth, this weird opening is just that, a weird opening.” – Whisperin and Hollerin

“It is a proposal as atmospherically dissonant as it is intimately open with a notion many will debate yet a track that by the second grew in fascination to almost argue its creator’s opinion, all the while the experimental inharmony offered a potent clue of things to come. Featuring singer Nick Merchant alongside Isleib’s whispered thoughts and suggestion, the track is certainly one that has grown in stature across numerous listens.” – Ringmaster Review

Song two is the truth: it’s called Circling the Canopies